Play of a Fiddle: Traditional Music, Dance, and Folklore in West Virginia [Hardcover]

Gerald Milnes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 10, 1999

" Play of a Fiddle gives voice to people who steadfastly hold to and build on the folk traditions of their ancestors. While encountering the influences of an increasingly overwhelming popular culture, the men and women in this book follow age-old patterns of folklife and custom, making their own music and dance in celebration of them. Shedding new light on a region that maintains ties to the cultural identities of its earliest European and African inhabitants, Gerald Milnes shows how folk music in West Virginia borrowed rhythmic, melodic, and vocal forms from the Celtic, Anglo, Germanic, and African traditions. These elements have come together to create a body of music tied more to place and circumstance than to ethnicity. Milnes explores the legacies of the state's best-known performers and musical families. He discusses religious music, balladeering, the influence of black musicians and styles, dancing, banjo and dulcimer traditions, and the importance of old-time music as a cultural pillar of West Virginia life. A musician himself, Milnes has been collecting songs and stories in West Virginia for more than twenty-five years. The result is an enjoyable book filled with anecdotes, local history, and keen observations about musical lives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An excellent step toward giving West Virginia's musical heritage its rightful place in American musical study." -- American Music

"Has much to offer for the fiddler who would like to develop conceptual understanding of the fiddle's place in history and society." -- American String Teacher

"Goes a long way toward enlightening readers about traditional music in central West Virginia.... A fascinating look at the culture that enjoys, plays, preserves, and protects that music." -- Appalachian Journal

"An enjoyable book filled with anecdotes, local history, and keen observations about musical lives." -- Appalachian Quarterly

"Milnes has combined his passion for the subject and his abiding respect for the people of West Virginia with carefully researched material and his own field notes and recordings." -- Choice

"Milnes counters many of the myths surrounding West Virginian folk culture." -- Ethnomusicology

"Essential reading for anyone interested in mountain music." -- Goldenseal

"A gem of a book.... Worth a great deal more than fiddler's pay for those interested in traditional mountain music." -- Green Man Review

"The information, particularly that on the dulcimer tradition, is exceedingly important to those of us who would try to understand the meaning of the legacy of old-time music making in the upland South." -- Jeff Todd Titon

"Documents a thriving folk culture in West Virginia, one that has changed and evolved over this century. Using numerous interviews he has conducted over the past 20 years, Milnes shows how folk music is an ageless expression of deep feelings and how it reveals the values and identity of a mountain culture." -- McCormick (SC) Messenger

"There is something for everyone: local histories and folkways, colorful expressions, rough and rowdy characters. No doubt it will stir the memories of many West Virginians, and hopefully inspire younger Mountaineers to keep the traditions going." -- West Virginia Gazette-Mail

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky; First Edition edition (February 10, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813120802
• ISBN-13: 978-0813120805
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,899,895 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Long overdue, December 28, 2002

By 

Cliff Wilkie "The Kingfish" (Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Play of a Fiddle: Traditional Music, Dance, and Folklore in West Virginia (Hardcover)

A fine book, evoking a lot more than just thoughts of fiddles. It brings back a lot of memories. There's endless stories winding on late into the night and square dances at the fire station with bright lights and cake walks. It's playing rhythm guitar while sitting on the porch hypnotized by the "play of the fiddle", playing those simple little tunes over and over and over, breathing life into them till they break loose and come alive. Reading Jerry's book was like stumbling into an attic full of memories.

There's something hypnotic about the sound of a fiddle, and Jerry weaves his own spell. All those countless, nameless, fiddle players were drawn to it and just couldn't ever get away. Way back "up the holler". It seems like the devil got hold of them & wouldn't let go. It's like sitting around a campfire, deep in the woods, listening to the baying of the hounds and just wondering what's really out there. Lot's of mystery up in the mountains and those old fiddle players felt it and made it sing out. Jerry really loves his fiddle music, but I think he really loves the spell of the mountains even more. Seems to come out best in the sound of a fiddle, played on the front porch, all alone, nothing but that fiddle sound, a full moon, and the deep silence of the endless woods. That fiddle music just floats in the silence. The hills don't care, they just sit there, and the fiddler plays on, just hearing that sound, going on and on and on...

Yep, it's a pretty good tale.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Play it again!, June 11, 2000

By 

william lepp (Halfdollar, WV) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Play of a Fiddle: Traditional Music, Dance, and Folklore in West Virginia (Hardcover)

As a storyteller and passive folklorist I found this book to be extremely useful and well written. The work the author has done to trace the origins of lore is an incredible journey into the past and speaks clearly to the persistent little voices in my head that are always calling out- "Now how on earth did someone think that up." The book does much more than instruct the reader: It creates a whole new world around folk traditions that is as colorful and as engaging as any novel and as useful for understanding Appalachia as any history book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fiddle Traditions and Folklore, February 1, 2004

By 

grasshopper4 (Arkansas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Play of a Fiddle: Traditional Music, Dance, and Folklore in West Virginia (Hardcover)

Along with providing a good understanding of old-time fiddling in West Virginia, this book also provides a wider discussion of other forms of folk music within the state. Milnes's discussion of the various folk traditions associated with fiddling is really interesting to read. He has fine descriptions of house parties, square dance callers' patter, and a good variety of the folk beliefs associated with fiddle tunes. The chapter on the ballad of Naomi Wise is especially good, and I also appreciated the chance to learn more about the dulcimer tradition in the state. Prior to reading this book, I thought that the dulcimer was primarily a recently introduced instrument that became popular only with the 1950s and 60s folk music revival. Milnes broadens that view and demonstrates that there has been an interesting and rich tradition of dulcimer playing in the Appalachians.